FRN News

Toogoodtowaste, one of the largest Big Lottery and Welsh Government funded projects in South Wales was declared officially open on Wednesday 3rd of July, with Ruth Jones attending the event and lending her support.

Ruth Jones star of Stella and Gavin and Stacey was one of the highlights of the day. With demonstrations and workshops, live music provided by GTFM, opportunities to buy pre-owned items and the chance to speak with past volunteers who have benefited from the training and work-based learning that is provided by toogoodtowaste.

Retailer John Lewis has launched its first not for profit service, the sofa reuse scheme, which sees 'end of first life' sofas collected by the retailer from customers' homes, then reused or recycled in conjunction with members of the Furniture Re-use Network to support disadvantaged communities.

The Furniture Re-use Network says a recent survey shows two-thirds of its members believe that a new social fund replacement system to help people in crisis will not be in place for the start of April.

The discretionary social fund – which provides grants and zero-interest loans to help vulnerable people with essential outlays (such as beds, cots or cookers) or deal with sudden costs incurred in a crisis, such as family breakdown – will be abolished. From April, some of the responsibility and funding for helping people in need will be transferred to local authorities, which will be entitled, but not obliged, to operate their own schemes.

The Furniture Re-use Network (FRN) has this week, written to every local authority CEO in the UK, calling on them to ensure new welfare support programmes and changes in responsibilities, do not ignore the valuable social inclusion work of local furniture re-use charities that have been supporting low income families for over three decades.

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